Myanmar and Permanent Revolution
We defend the democratic aspirations of the Burmese masses. But as long as they attach their aspirations to Aung San Suu Kyi they are set up for failure. Liberalism in the West retailed the idea that Suu Kyi was a parliamentary democrat and the credulous went for it. It becomes a semantic question to call the Burmese military grab a coup when once you acknowledge that Suu Kyi was a tolerated figurehead, propped up for western sensibilities, at best, Nobel Prize notwithstanding. Semi-colonial states like Myanmar can never become truly independent without socialism. Chinese imperialism is no more the liberator of south Asia than Japanese imperialism was.
Some of the contending left commentators have done important work defending both the Rohiingya and the masses in the street; and some like AF (ed: abbrev for anonymity) (Reddit Marxists USCA), John Reimann (Oakland Socialist) and Michael Probsting for the RCIT have identified the role of Chinese imperalism’s Belt and Road initiative as the compelling force behind the move by the military. Reimann reproduces AF’s correct claim that the Bamar majority population’s hopes are doomed so long as they do not demand an end to the persecution of Myanmar’s ethnic minorities. AF even alludes to the correctness of Trotsky’s theory of Permanent Revolution, although he doesn’t name it, and only points out that Trotskyist groups are not explaining its relevance as the one way out to democracy. He correctly shows the fascism of the Bamar elite and the military domination of parliament and how the commercial vassalage to China suppresses wages and negates all but the vestigial semblance of independence.
A correct appraisal accentuates the long term alliance of the capitalist military to the Peoples’ Republic and the subordinate semi-colonial position of Myanmar. The West had always hoped that the Suu Kyi wing of the bourgeoisie would keep or propel Myanmar as a semi-colony of the West just as the military which has kept her in her gilded cage has built its power on its economic ties to China during the period of China’s counter-revolution from a Deformed Workers State to capitalism and rising imperialism. The tug of war between declining US imperialism and rising Chinese imperialism over the semi-colonies of South Asia leaves Myanmar a semi-colony of China.
The Stalinists’ two-stage theory that the bourgeois democtatic revolution in the semi-colonies and colonies is a necessary stage separate from the socialist revolution is a recipe for defeat for the working masses. The comprador bourgeoisie is too weak and servile, dependent on feudal vestiges, and always tied and subordinated to imperialism and their material interests to carry out the bourgeois revolution in the colonies/semi-colonies. The way forward for the Myanmar workers and farmers is through building a revolutionary workers party that fights for bourgeois democratic rights and national independence as part of the fight for socialist revolution. For Permanent Revolution throughout southeast Asia! For a new World Party of Socialist Revolution!
Footnote:
Trotsky’s Permanent Revolution:
https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1931/tpr/pr10.htm
John Reimann posting from Facebook:
From AF (ed: abbrev for anonymity). This is a perfect example of what Leon Trotsky explained – that the capitalist class in the former colonial world cannot accomplish what they did in the advanced capitalist countries. As AF (ed: abbrev for anonymity) explains, under capitalism Myanmar cannot become a modern “democratic” state; it cannot rid itself of feudal remains; it cannot even become genuinely independent. The conclusion we should draw is that only the working class can do this… after it takes power. AF (ed: abbrev for anonymity) writes:
“The recent arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi has likely less to do with a coup against democracy and more to do with the semi-colonial relationship that Myanmar has with China. So far from what I’ve read, Trotskyists completely neglect to mention this. Fascist Myanmar is the oldest regional ally of the People’s Republic of China: not only a military ally, but an economic one, where cheap raw materials such as jade can be extracted, as well as cheap labour. It has also become one of the first steps in the Belt and Road Initiative.
“In recent years it has become known for the ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Rohingya people – an ethnic minority of Muslims, some of whom seem to have formed both nationalist and religious fundamentalist groups to resist the genocide. The ethnic cleansing is deeply tied to fascist Japanese invasion and occupation, and also to imperialist British colonialism. It was under the three-year Japanese occupation that the Burmese National Army, trained by the fascist Japanese (and led by the father of Suu Kyi), attacked ethnic minorities, as Japan attempted to wrest control from the British.
“It was only after it became clear that Japan didn’t seek to liberate Burma, but to steal it as a colony for itself, that the BNA flipped sides to fight the Japanese. The Burma National Army, of majority Bamar ethnicity, became firm Bamar supremacists, learning from the racial supremacism of the Japanese and the British. This would ripple into later organisations through leaders like the Japanese-trained Ne Win, as they formed a Bamar variant of fascist ideology, crystallised in the Burma Socialist Programme Party.
“Aung San Suu Kyi was not a critic of the genocide, but in fact made up excuses for it, providing a valuable, but ineffective, political cover. For being a ‘symbol of democracy’ (and I use that phrase tongue in cheek – a symbol promoted in the west), she did not have much to say on minority rights or the right for suffrage for those minorities. Suu Kyi, with her Nobel Peace Prize, became a useful tool of the military as a toothless figurehead – a puppet to lift US sanctions and ease domestic tension by providing a legitimate face for fascist rule. The entire time Suu Kyi was ‘in power’ Myanmar had a constitution written by the military, in which the army controlled at least 25% of parliament by default through military appointments. Many following reports of attacks against ethnic minorities (Suu Kyi is Bamar) say the attacks increased and it was reported that her government attempted to install statues of her father (a Bamar) in the communities of ethnic minorities being oppressed. Those ethnic minorities were prevented from voting.
“But despite the fact that Suu Kyi was a paper tiger, she was looked on by western imperialists as a potential partner, posing with Bush and Obama, while the military was looked on as a loyal partner of China. With Chinese ambitions in Myanmar with Belt and Road – as well as the Covid-19 outbreak that many experts said required a military lockdown to control – it’s likely that Suu Kyi was seen as outliving her usefulness, resulting in her removal. The real power behind the throne, the military, needed to show China that they are a most reliable partner for decades to come and that there’s nothing to worry about.
“The idea that Myanmar was ever on a road to bourgeois democracy was an illusion. A bourgeois democracy requires a serious crisis, a bourgeois democratic revolution, a mass uprising, or a war where the victor installs it. It was a foolish lie that it could democratise as a result of a change of heart by the fascists.
So what next for Myanmar? The manoeuvring of the military seems designed to bring Myanmar closer to China, but it is also an unpopular decision with the masses. Suu Kyi remains very popular, and her supporters may attempt to build a movement.
“But I cannot see a movement of just the Bamar. At some point, if the Myanmar people who are Bamar want to end military rule, they will likely need the help and support of ethnic minorities. They have to demand an end to the persecution of ethnic minorities to make that happen. They will need more allies.
Otherwise, their fate is going to be left up to the bigger regional powers of India and China.”
James Connolly:
